Trump backs idea of separate states for Israel, Palestinians

UN I TED N AT I ONS» For the first time since taking office, President Donald Trump endorsed a twostate solution as the best way to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, as he met Wednesday at the U.N. with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump told reporters he believes that two states — Israel and one for the Palestinians — “works best.” He has previously been vague on the topic, suggesting that he would support whatever the parties might agree to, including possibly a onestate resolution, which might see the Palestinian territories become part of Israel.

“I like (a) twostate solution,” Trump said as he posed for photographs with Netanyahu. “That’s what I think works best. That’s my feeling. Now you may have a different feeling. I don’t think so. But I think twostate solution works best.”

The president added that his much anticipated but still unreleased Mideast peace plan could be presented in the next two to four months, but was not specific as to timing.

Trump has been criticized by the Palestinians for a series of moves that they say show distinct bias toward Israel, starting with his recognition last year of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Palestinians also claim the holy city as the capital of an eventual state. This year, Trump moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a step widely pro tested in the Arab world.

His administration also slashed aid to the Palestinians by hundreds of millions of dollars and ended U.S. support for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinians reacted cautiously to Trump’s remarks, noting that a twostate solution has long been the goal of peace efforts, including a broader ArabIsraeli plan that would see Arab states all recognize Israel if the Palestinians got an independent state.